6 Answers
6

If I understand the idea behind stackoverflow in a nutshell, it's to help developers find a solution to their issues. If "try this" / "check this" / "whatever" solves the issue, I do not see your point. Down voting someone that solved the issue is rather pointless in my opinion. I think you would be more helpful to other developers answering questions that have no answers yet, than to waste your time to find posts that you would want to vote down.

Couldn't agree more. Some people tend to believe that if they have a reasonable amount of knowledge(not a guru), some new guy(low on points) should be screwed just for fun.
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DumbCoderOct 22 '10 at 14:06

"than to waste your time to find posts that you would want to vote down." - sorry I have never said I do such a thing. If I spot such an answer when I read a question's thread, I will downvote it. I do't try to "find posts that I would want to vote down.". That's nonsense. "answering questions that have no answers yet" - thanks I already do that. The one does not exclude the other.
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Johannes Schaub - litbOct 24 '10 at 10:46

To answer your question: If the question is "Why does this not work" / "What's wrong?" and the answer is "Try xyz" - then that does not answer the question. It's suggesting some code that empirically works around it.
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Johannes Schaub - litbOct 24 '10 at 10:51

@JohannesSchaub-litb If the owner of a question marks a suggestion as the answer, the answer can start with whatever floats the boat of the beholder. Maybe a blank space, who knows.
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neolaceOct 21 '14 at 4:31

What if you provide an own answer. Afterwards do you downvote it or upvote it or leave it alone?
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Johannes Schaub - litbSep 12 '10 at 20:50

4

@litb If you think the other answer doesn't help or contains incorrect information, you can downvoted it. Otherwise you can just leave it like it and move along. If your anwer is better, overtime it will gain upvote.
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HoLyVieRSep 12 '10 at 22:55

"Try XYZ" is pretty much the only way to get things fixed on Server Fault, unless the user has asked a question that's a common problem or provided precisely the right bit of config that's causing their problem.

So, when I'm trying to solve a problem and I see a Try XYZ I damn well try XYZ and if it works or gets me closer to an answer then I upvote it.

Sometimes you know the answer, or know what is that all about because it had happened to you in the past, but you don't have the time to reproduce it ( or is not completely reproducible in first place ). In this situation it makes sense to say "I remember this could be fixed by xyz, but I'm not sure, hence: try xyz"

If the recommendation is bad, it will be downvoted or ignored. If the recommendation solved the problem, it will be upvoted and as in the post in question, accepted, it it is helpful.

I think that this is a bad thing to do. Why not post such suspicions as comments? After all, it's not an answer at all. It's more like a question: "Does this maybe solve it?". I usually downvote such things as they overall lower the quality of stackoverflow.
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Johannes Schaub - litbSep 13 '10 at 11:35

@litb: What if someone posted such a text as a comment, and that comment did solve your problem? Who's answer would you accept?
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JoshSep 13 '10 at 15:40

1

@Josh i would accept an answer that contains that text and explains how it solves my problem. If there is no such answer, I won't accept any.
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Johannes Schaub - litbSep 13 '10 at 17:56

I disagree with the notion that "try XYZ" is necessarily guesswork. It can be a seasoned expert's tip who doesn't want to explain the same thing in detail over and over.

That said, I usually don't upvote "try XYZ" answers. I prefer answers that give a piece of background, reference links, and the likes. I also try to write such answers myself. But if a "try XYZ" answer is correct, it would be wrong to downvote it.

The answerer itself may very well know the reason they proposed it. But for the questioner, if they substitute it into their code and it works, it is guess-coding for them, because it "magically" works. I think reputation is a mark for how good one answers question, but not necessarily how good one knows their area of interests.
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Johannes Schaub - litbOct 24 '10 at 13:25

@litb then it's up to the questioner to ask for details before upvoting or accepting. If you think it's okay to downvote correct answers because they are not detailed enough, well, that's your prerogative. I personally find it sufficient to not upvote them.
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PëkkaOct 24 '10 at 15:38